60,000 See New York Launched Perfectly.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 31, 1912:
Our Biggest Warship Cheered by President Taft, Heads of Navy, and Great Throng.
CONSTRUCTORS ARE PLEASED
Miss Calder Throws Wine Bottle Too Gently and Officer Has to Smash It as Ship Slides Down Ways.
    The superdreadnought New York, with her sister the Texas, the greatest of battleships, was launched in the presence of a throng of about 60,000 persons at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn yesterday morning. The great mass of steel which is destined to be the flagship of the fighting fleet in the Atlantic took her initial plunge in the presence of the President of the United States, the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, of the Commander-in-chief of the Atlantic, the Governor of New York and hundreds of other persons who are prominent in the political, business and social life of America.
    The day was a perfect one for the launching, and when Commander John R Bailey, the young naval constructor who is soon to celebrate his thirty-fifth birthday, touched the electric button that started the New York on her way to the East River, the thousands on shore jumped and cheered, the sirens of four great dreadnoughts blew and blew, while out in the stream the naval tugs and patrol boats let out a shrieking welcome to the coming queen of the seas.
    It was an inspiring sight and none appreciated it more than did the President. He clapped his hands again and again and then he leaned far over the rail of the stand and looked at a youthful officer of the service, the only one in that great throng who was not in the glittering uniform of his rank. The officer was Bailey, the Annapolis man who is in charge of the construction of the greatest ship the Government itself has ever undertaken to build. And Bailey looked pleased. A look of great relief shown in his face. Had anything gone wrong, he would have been the one to shoulder the blame. But nothing went wrong. The battleship started on her journey to the waters as gently as the great dreadnoughts already finished steam from their anchorages. When she struck the water she glided swiftly out into the river and under the Williamsburg Bridge, where a fleet of pursuing naval tugs caught her and dragged her back to the Navy Yard.

The Arrangements Perfect.
    Eleven o'clock was the hour set for the New York to be launched, and it was 11 to the second when Bailey touched the button and sent her on her way. The sight was magnificent, and the surroundings impressive. On the piers, on the tops of buildings, in the vacant spaces to the right and to the left of the battleships, on the decks of the dreadnoughts and other vessels in the yard, and on the stands in the rear of the cradle in which the great ship then rested, the thousands of spectators were massed. So perfect was the arrangement that there was no excuse for any person in that splendid throng to have missed seeing the New York when she shot down the ways on which more than a ton of the finest lubricants had been used.
    The stand for the officials was erected just back of the prow of the ship. For the girl who was to name the New York a bay window sort of arrangement was provided to the port of the New York's prow. This girl was Miss Elsie Calder, daughter of Congressman Calder of Brooklyn. She stood in the midst of a distinguished group of men, among whom was the President. Secretary Meyer, Admiral Osterhaus, the Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet; Major Gen. Barry, commanding the Eastern Division of the army; Gov. Dix, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Congressman J. J. Fitzgerald of Brooklyn, who brought his little daughter Kathleen, a mite of a girl to whom was given the honor of pelting the New York with roses when she retreated from her prison ashore.
    More than 50,000 invitations to the launching were sent out by the Navy Department, and if one of these 50,000 persons failed to show up, the Department would be pleased to learn his name and to tell him he missed one of the finest spectacles in the history of the navy. In addition to the 50,000 invited guests, there were more than 5,000 bluejackets and marines present, and as many more youngsters and others who managed to get through the marine cordon without the aid of a pass.
    The crowd began to assemble soon after 8 o'clock yesterday morning, and from that hour until within a few minutes of the launching hour, Sands Street, from the Brooklyn Bridge entrance to the Navy Yard gate and Flushing Avenue in both directions, was jammed with an onrushing good-natured crowd of men, women, and children. The police arrangements, under Inspector Harkins and Capt. Arthur Carey, were splendid, and 200 uniformed men formed a line through which the launching visitors marched to the yard. Inside the yard polite marines were in charge and saw to it that every person was placed where he or she could see the New York when Commander Bailey consigned her to the waters.

Greeting the President.
    The coming of the President and his party was announced by the thundering of the Presidential salute of twenty-one guns from the superdreadnoughts Wyoming and Arkansas, now the two mightiest of American ships in commission, but which will have to take second place when the New York and the Texas enter the first line of the national sea defense. The Florida and the Utah, sister superdreadnoughts, the former being the first ship of that class built at the Navy Yard, the champion efficiency ship of all the navy; the Delaware, and she, too, is a superdreadnought, and lastly the battleship Connecticut of the Atlantic fleet, which is soon, however, to transfer that honor to the newer and mightier Wyoming. Also Joining in the tribute of powder and smoke to the President was the receiving ship Hancock, while the torpedo boats, which do not fire salutes, gracefully curtsied with their flags in welcoming the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy.
    The President proceeded through cheering crowds to the stand. There he met Miss Calder and little Miss Fitzgerald. With him came Secretary Meyer, Chairman Hilles of the Republican National Committee, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Winthrop, Major Rhoades, his military aid and Lieut. Timmons, his naval aid. In a few minutes the President's party was joined by Admiral Osterhaus, Gen. Barry, Mr. Morgan, ex-Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy, ex-Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Herbert L. Satterlee, Rear Admiral Fiske, Commanding the First Division of the Atlantic Fleet, Miss Helen Miller Gould, Capt. Gleaves, Commandant of the Navy Yard, Rear Admiral Watt, the Chief Constructor of the Navy; Naval Constructor Stock er, Rear Admiral Cone, Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering; Brig. Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, U. S. A; Col. John A. Hull, U. S. A., Gov. Dix, Adjutant General Verbeck, N. G. N. Y., and Capt. Frank K. Hill, Chief of Staff of the Atlantic Fleet.
    The arrival of the President signalled the beginning of the final preparations for the launching. Bailey, the builder of superdreadnoughts, hustled about seeing that everything was exactly right. It all rested on his young shoulders and he knew it. The knocking away of heavy timbers underneath the great steel hull of the New York began and with each drop of the hammers the crowd knew that the great moment was nearer. At three minutes to eleven the knocking stopped, and there was a great silence. Over 100,000 eyes were focused on the red hull of the New York.

The Bottle Refuses to Break.
    Two minutes passed and the New York still rested in her cradle. Another minute passed and then there was a mighty shout. The New York was moving. Slowly and majestically for a second or two and then like a rocket the great mass shot down the greased ways. A girl in white who stood by the President of the United States grasped in both her hands a big bottle of wine. She let it go and in her excitement she released it gently instead of flinging it with all the strength at her command. The bottle touched the side of the New York. It was just a tap and the bottle did not break.
    A young man on the dreadnought quickly saw what had happened. He caught the end of the rope to which the dangling bottle was attached, and drawing it up, quickly threw it from him, and this time the bottle came back with a vim and smashed itself against the side of the battleship.
    Like a thing of life the New York rushed for the water. It seemed minutes, yet it was only seconds, before her stern struck. There was a great splash that kicked up a wave that looked like a mid-Atlantic comber. Ashore the crowd cheered madly, the bandsmen tried their best to make the "Star-Spangled Banner" heard above the din, the whistles on tug's whistled and shrieked, and the sirens of more than 100,000 tons of dreadnoughts let out a mighty blast of welcome that must have been heard for miles.
    The New York floated like a gull, and even in her unfinished state was a thing graceful and pleasing to look upon. On and on she went right out of the basin into the East River, and then pointed north for the Williamsburg Bridge. The big navy tugs raced after her, and one after the other they caught her and made fast the hawsers that were thrown from the New York to their decks. Slowly they brought the monster fighting machine to a dead stop and then, taking her in tow, pulled her back into the basin and made her fast to the pier where she will remain until her armament is placed, her engines installed, her masts placed in position, and the various other things which have to be done before she is commissioned, are finished.
    Following the launching, the President, Miss Calder, and other specially invited guests were the guests of the navy yard officers at luncheon. Little Miss Fitzgerald was there too, and everybody laughed when she answered in reply to the President's question as to how many roses hit the New York.
    "I think one of them may have got her but I doubt it, for she went too fast," the little girl said.

Taft Pleased.
    During the luncheon the President commented briefly on the New York.
    "It's a wonderful ship," he said. "It's a grand ship and a credit to the navy yard workmen. I was on the Wyoming, and I felt as if I was on a large island. The vessel is so great, the progress in construction is truly wonderful. Since the time of the Connecticut, which has 10,000 tons displacement, we have seen a great step, and there is more to come in the new Pennsylvania, which will have 30,000 tons."
    Ex-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Satterlee, who is a son-in-law of J. Pierpont Morgan, commented on the New York and the lesson the event taught.
    "What we should have is a capital ship for every star in the flag, which would be forty-eight," said Mr. Satterlee. "This makes thirty-three. It is very necessary that the public should not pay much attention to tonnage, but remember we should have a ship — I mean a big ship — for every State. The New York is a capital ship. We have passed the age of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts and have reached that of the capital ship. Next year we ought to provide for five ships to make up for the one we didn't build this year. Thereafter four ships should be built every year until we have one for every State. That, to me, is the lesson of this launch."
    Commander Bailey had no comment to make, and all that Constructor Stocker had to say was that he was very much pleased with everything. Admiral Watt added his approval.
    Miss Calder thought a mistake had been made, and said she was certain she must have cracked the bottle even if she did not smash it to pieces, as she had hoped would be the case.
    The general dimensions and features of the New York are as follows:
    Length of designer's water line, 565 feet.
    Breadth, extreme, at designer's water line, 95 feet 2 5/8 inches.
    Mean trial displacement, 27,000 tons.
    Mean draft, 28 feet 6 inches.
    Total coal bunker capacity, 2,850 tons,
    Total fuel oil storage, 400 tons.
    Speed on trial, not less than 21 knots.
    Main battery: Ten 14-inch .45 calibre rifles; four submerged torpedo tubes. (21 inch.)
    Secondary battery: Twenty-One 5-inch rapid-fire guns, .51 calibre; four 8-pounder saluting guns; two 1-pounder semi-automatic guns for boats; two 3-inch field pieces; two machine guns, .30 calibre.
    The machinery consists of triple expansion engines of 28,100 designed horsepower, driving two propellers, fourteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers in four Boiler rooms. The vitals are protected by heavy armor.

TAFT GREETS BLUEJACKETS.
Miss Gould Meets Men from Battleships After Launching.
    President Taft was the guest of the enlisted men of the navy at the Sands Street Naval Young Men's Christian Association yesterday afternoon. Sharing with the President the applause of the men behind the guns was Miss Helen Miller Gould, who was especially honored later with a reception, during which she was presented to hundreds of bluejackets and marines from the various ships now in the navy yard.
    The President was accompanied by Secretary of the Navy Meyer, Rear Admiral Osterhaus, Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet; Rear Admiral Fiske, commanding the First Division of the Atlantic Fleet; Capt. Frank K. Hill, U. S. N.; Miss Gould, and William Sloane, the Vice Chairman of the International Young Men's Christian Association. The President got as hearty a cheer as he ever received in his life when he arose to address the bluejackets.
    The President called the sailors "my lads" all the way through his speech, and complimented them on being as clean-cut, manly a body of men as is to be found anywhere.
    "I congratulate you from the bottom of nay heart." said the President, "that there are such good women as Miss Gould and others who are able to provide such splendid institutions as the Naval Young Men's Christian Association buildings.
    "There was a time, my lads, when it was thought in order to be a good sailor one had to be able to get drunk quickly. I am glad that day has passed, and today the bluejackets and marines of our service are gentlemen, aboard ship or on shore. They are men, gentlemen, who can be depended upon to respect the flag, and if necessary to give their lives in its defense. My lads, the heart of all America goes out to you."
    The reception to Miss Gould began immediately following the departure of the President.

TAFT FOR TWO-SHIP PLAN.
With Meyer He So Declares at Navy Yard Men's Dinner to Him.
    President Taft and Secretary of the Navy Meyer were the guests of the employes of the New York Navy Yard, at a dinner in the Thirteenth Regiment Armory, Brooklyn, last night. There were more than 1,000 navy yard men present, while as many more of their wives and daughters were in the galleries. It was the first dinner of the kind that a President of the United States has ever attended, and Mr. Taft enjoyed every moment of it up to the time he was leaving when he was halted and informed of the death in Utica of Vice President Sherman. The President himself announced the news to the diners, and then, at his suggestion, the other speeches were called off and the assemblage adjourned as a mark of respect to Mr. Sherman.
    There were to have been many speeches, but only those of the President, Secretary Meyer, Congressmen Fitzgerald and Calder, and Naval Constructor Stocker were delivered. The President was the first to speak. He could not be seen well, and so he jumped up on a chair, and the view of some of those in the rear still being poor, he made another jump, and this time he landed on top of the table, and from that eminence delivered his speech.
    "You have assigned to me," the President said, "the toast of 'Our Country.' and as the titular head of that country and as the spokesman for the people of that country I congratulate you, the workmen of the New York Navy Yard, on the splendid work you have done this day in the launching of the New York, a ship that is to add so much to the prestige and prowess of our country.
    "I extend to you the gratitude of the Nation for the New York. I hope she will never be used in war but that she shall be an insurance of peace. We seek only our rights as a Nation and those rights we are ready and able to defend. I believe in the policy of building two formidable battleships every year, which with the coming Panama Canal will mean doubling the efficiency of the American Navy. Again I thank you for this courtesy to me and now I bid you good night."
    Secretary Meyer followed the President. "We want." he said, "a fleet of forty-one battleships — twenty-one in the active fleet and twenty in reserve — and of these we want twenty-one New Yorks or better as soon as possible, for in the larger-calibre ships rests the defense of the country. Given an adequate navy, the prosperity of the navy yards follows as sure as dawn follows darkness. You, then, as Americans, have a duty, and I have pointed the way. Do your utmost that never again shall we have to discuss the question of battleships and be confronted with the positive danger of securing only one for a year."
    Others at the speakers' table besides those mentioned were Naval Constructor Bailey, Capt. A. Gleaves, the commandant of the navy yard; Rear Admiral Hutch I. Cone, Rear Admiral R. M. Watt, Lieut. Commander W. T. Cluverius, and Capt George E. Burd, U. S. N.